Flood — Merced, California

2023-01-11 · near Dos Palos, Merced, California

Event narrative

California Highway Patrol reported reported roadway flooding on Turner Island Rd. at Henry Miller Ave.

Wider weather episode

A strong low pressure system moved through central California on January 9 and 10. This system picked up a deep moisture fetch of tropical origin while tracking rapidly eastward across the Pacific and produced widespread heavy precipitation across the area between the morning of January 9 and the evening of January 10 while the deep surge of moisture moved inland across central California. This storm produced widespread liquid precipitation totals of 3 to 6 inches in the Sierra Nevada. For much of this event, the snow level was around 7500 feet which resulted in heavy runoff of snow accumulations from recent colder storms. This runoff combined with rainfall of 2 to 4 inches in the Sierra foothills and 1 to 2.5 inches in the San Joaquin Valley to produce widespread flooding across the area with at least 150 separate incidents of flooding being reported to the Hanford NWS office. The flooding resulted in numerous roads being closed and several evacuations took place including the entire town of Planada in Merced County which was inundated with flood waters. In addition, Bear Creek overflowed it's banks and reached a new record peak flood of 26.2 feet at McKee Bridge east of Merced on January 10. Above the snow line, there were several reports of 2 to 4 feet of new snowfall above 7500 feet in the Sierra Nevada. This system also produced strong downslope winds on January 9 with several stations in the Tehachapi Mountains, West Side Hills and Sierra foothills measuring gusts exceeding 60 mph and resulting in several power outages across the area as power lines were blown down by the strong winds. Thunderstorms broke out across the much of the area on January 10 as colder air aloft moved over the area resulting in numerous issuances of Significant Weather Advisories along with a few warnings. The storm moved to the east of the area on January 11 with precipitation ending and winds diminishing. However, flooding continued across much of the area due to residual runoff from the heavy precipitation that fell over the previous two days. Several county Emergency Operations Centers were staffed by NWS personnel during this event do to the unusual severity with this storm as numerous warnings were issued for flooding, strong winds and heavy mountain snowfall.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.1000, -120.7100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1065347. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.